Oh, Diane … DVF @ LACMA
Jan
4
2014
We admire the internationally acclaimed fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg — and occasionally mozey around her chic Melrose Avenue boutique perusing the imaginative and beautifully made clothing. Von Furstenberg first entered the fashion world in 1972 with a suitcase full of jersey dresses. Two years later, she created the wrap dress, which came to symbolize power and ...
Hooray for Hurrell 1
We caught up recently with Mark Vieira, author of the newly published “George Hurrell’s Hollywood,” an image-filled tribute to the film industry’s lauded glamour photographer. When asked how Hurrell got his start in high-gloss movie-star portraiture, Mark explained, “Hurrell was an unknown commercial photographer in the artsy Westlake District of Los Angeles when he made ...
Meet Marc Platt, stage & screen dancer 2
Born ‘Marcel Emile Gaston Leplat’ in Pasadena, California, on December 2, 1913, Marc Platt’s passion (and training) for classic dance started at an early age. The son of concert artists, he began studying dance with Mary Ann Welles in Seattle, at age 12, when after watching her class he declared: “I could do that.” They let him ...
Koehler on Cinema: Best of 2013
1. Leviathan 2. A Touch of Sin 3. Inside Llewyn Davis 4. American Hustle 5. The Last Time I Saw Macao 6. Upstream Color 7. Gravity 8. Nana 9. Viola 10. Computer Chess 11. Museum Hours 12. At Berkeley 13. The Last Christeros 14. The Wind Rises 15. Sightseers 16. Pain and Gain 17. No ...
A six-year “tradition”: Laemmle Theatres “Fiddler” fest
We had a ball this holiday season when friends gathered last Tuesday night for Laemmle Theatre‘s sixth annual “Fiddler on the Roof” Sing-a-Long screening. For the first time, the venerable family-owned theater chain (in 2013, it marks its 75th anniversary) rolled out the Christmas Eve event city-wide. Spreading from Santa Monica, by the sea, to ...
Step aside, Sugar Plum Fairy! Enter the Kwanzaa Kween.
Dec
30
2013
Much as we love the chiming celesta that signals an indelible ballet escapade, that of the Sugar Plum Fairy in the beloved holiday favorite, “The Nutcracker,” we’ve also grown to love another special solo. I’m calling it the Kwanzaa Kween — a ballet divertissement porting a heady tinge of the African continent. The dance is ...
Coens recycle musical rivalries in “Inside Llewyn Davis”
The closing moments of the Coen Bros “Llewyn Davis” distinctly refer to a struggle between two artistic strivers; the rapidly imploding and unsuccessful Llewlyn, a fictional character, eclipsed by a real-life rival who burned brighter — Bob Dylan. The film also hearkens an earlier aristic rivalry between a bright star and a perpetual under dog: ...
Forget your tsuris! Attend Laemmle Theatres’ “Fiddler” sing-a-long. 1
Dec
22
2013
For an “alternative” Christmas Eve, not restricted to the Jewishly oriented but for shower-stall-soloists of every persuasion, we have a suggestion. Try Laemmle Theatres’ sixth annual “anything goes” (and we’re not talking Cole Porter) “Fiddler on the Roof Sing-a-Long.” Belt out your holiday spirit — or your holiday angst — with your fellow meshuggenahs while ...
Holiday sounds: manger, mistletoe, and martinis
Every December, a crop of new recordings address the season by celebrating the birth of Jesus, playing up the frivolity of holiday parties, and all variations between. These are some of this year’s CDs. PBS viewers know well the angelic boys choir Libera. A recorded concert at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Armagh soars to heavenly ...
Chestnuts roasting in London … to Offenbach’s “Fantasio” 1
To the classical chestnuts of many a holiday season — Messiahs, Nutcrackers, Oratorios, Bats and Holy Nights — as essential and perennial as those roasting on that open fire, perhaps add the delightful confection that is Offenbach’s Fantasio.